Between The Lines
by InTheShadowOfSignificance
Summary: A series of drabbles for moments we never got to see in the anime. All themes and couples, rating may be lenient.
1. Always

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.

Warnings/Notes: A series of drabbles strongly reminiscent of moments we unfortunately never got to see.

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**Chapter 1: "Always"**

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He smoothed soft tresses of blonde beneath his calloused hands. "Max." She panted huskily into his ear, suppressing a moan as his teeth met the flesh above her collarbone, sinking in hard.

"Shh." He cooed, trailing the end of his tongue along the bruising mark of his teeth, panting against the rhythm of their bodies. Her breaths came in shallow tremors beneath him, the cries building higher and higher as his hand wove itself around a curtain of her hair.

"Max!" The frizzing, gnarled mess in his fingers pulled taut for a moment and loosened at the sound of her voice. His body drove itself further into the friction of her own as her fingers laced together behind his back, pressing him in an embrace. "I love you." She hoped the softness of her voice would slow the moment down, leave the subtle ache to build longer, but he was beyond waiting now.

"I love you." He murmured, withdrawing the hand from her hair and catching her in a passionate kiss, fingers gripping the sheets as her moans reverberated against his lips - his neck - his chest. He thrust into her again, almost too forcefully, as her lips parted from his in a sharp gasp of what he guessed was more surprise than pain. "I love you." And they kissed again, the heat building until their bones shook with the anticipation of release and they finally collapsed, a mess of sweat and musk against the once cool sheets beneath them.

"You're impatient." She chided, a laugh muffled in her throat.

He broke into a grin as she pulled him closer, bringing the blanket up around them. "Forgive me?"

She kissed his teeth as his fingers moved instinctively to the bruise he'd left, making it impossible for him to say more. For a moment his fingertips caressed the area, the sensation distracting her as she pulled away, tracing her lips with her tongue to simulate the grooves of his teeth, stained red with her lipstick.

"Always."

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Feel free to review, rant, etc.


	2. Birthday Wishes

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.

Warnings/Notes: The following chapter is a request from an anonymous reviewer for "Peachshipping" or YugixAnzu. If you have a request please feel free to include it in your review, thank you. (A scene we never got to see after the close of Duelist Kingdom and return to relative normality.)

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**Chapter 2: Birthday Wishes**

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Her apartment smelled of buttercream and candle wax.

"Thank you."

She turned; startled from her thoughts by a soft voice she almost couldn't place. Her lips parted, she began to mouth words, but cerulean caught violet and she lost all train of thought.

He moved into the doorway, eyes narrowing below her gaze, "Is it okay if I…" She nodded vigorously before he could finish, motioning for him to sit down. Swallowing nervously, she knelt on the floor and he took the invitation to join her. "I never thanked you properly for your duel with Mai, you didn't have to do that you know."

She blinked, dumbfounded, "Of course I did." She countered more aggressively than intended, "You've always been there when I needed you, I was repaying that."

"Don't think of it as a debt, I 'm here because I want to be." There was a sudden edge in his voice, something oddly uncharacteristic of him, oozing hurt and finality.

"Okay." Then, "I'm sorry."

His eyes locked on hers again, "Don't be." He replied with that small smile that meant everything would be fine.

He said, "I should go," but his body stayed rooted to the floor, one arm on the table, lingering, as if needing motivation to hoist himself up or to settle back down.

"Happy birthday," she offered one last time, and they both laughed genuinely, like they did when the whole gang was together. She forced herself to breathe easier now.

"I made a wish this year." He said, and in her curiosity she did not notice how close his face was to hers.

"Oh yeah, what fo-"his lips met hers shakily, his hand catching her wrist, which moved reflexively to put distance between their two forms. For a moment he was tentative. She let him fumble through the first peck before closing her eyes and guiding him into a real kiss.

Though they had spent the bulk of their year together, sixteen had been different for her than it had for Yugi. Very different.

He spent his time fighting for loved ones with a clear outcome, favorable or otherwise. She had chased the figment of a boy she hardly knew was real, battling feelings for him against apprehension toward the spirit he had merged with. She couldn't say for sure who had a harder go of things, losing the fight meant, for both of them, losing someone so incredibly, painfully crucial it was almost unfathomable to process…but none of that mattered now.

She kissed him again, for the traces of frosting that clung to his bottom lip.

They had each other in the end.

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This chapter is a lot more "innocent" than the last because it felt true to character. I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to review, rant, etc.


	3. Entity

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.

Warnings/Notes: Adult themes mildly implied. Another request from an anonymous reviewer, this time for "Spiritshipping" or YugixAnzuxYami, feel free to leave requests for couples and points of interest you'd like to see discussed / written.

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**Chapter 3: Entity**

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People asked questions, and for the most part that was okay. They were simple enough, too superficial to hurt her the way they were obviously intended to._ "Isn't it…odd to love two people? …Don't they, you know…get jealous?" _

It is as easy and as comfortable as loving anyone, because love knows no boundaries, and because Yami and Yugi are not truly two people, but two sides of one being. When she needs someone to whisper soft, tender words into the darkness, she knows that she will always have him, and when she needs someone to stand her up and make her strong, she has the other. They are everything she needs, and to be without either of them, even for a short period, is unthinkable.

"Anzu." The elder is with her tonight, his voice deep and rasping against the skin of her forehead, where he presses his lips and holds them, "Is something the matter?"

"No." She breathes quietly, taking in the scent of his skin. "I love you."

Behind the powerful embrace of the taller, broader form, there is the sensitive caress of the smaller man who she also loves as deeply and as unconditionally. In the night she listens to them breathing, soft, and deep, and slow. Because the three of them are never more one than they are in the waning hours of the night, as she listens to the clock tick in time to their one heartbeat, a rhythmic testimony of their unity, now and forever.

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As usual, feel free to review, rant, etc.


	4. How Long Is Forever?

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.

Warnings/Notes: Another request by an anonymous reviewer, this time for "Blueshipping" or SetoxKisara. The italics are a flashback of Priest Seto and Kisara, present day Seto Kaiba is written in original text.

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**Chapter 4: How Long Is Forever?**

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His laptop screen glowed white against a moonless Tuesday night, the brunette in front of it slumped back, head tilting, mouth slightly opened in a battle with sleep he'd lost more than an hour ago.

"_Is this alright?"_

"_What do you mean?" His strong, tanned hand moved over hers. _

"_Perhaps I misspoke." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, suddenly embarrassed by her own audacity. _

"_Kisara." A shudder overtook her entire being. "Speak." This time it was an order._

_She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth, working feeling into her stiff jaw, "When I am with you…like this…" She seemed as lost as he was now. The sun sunk lower on the horizon, everything around them impossibly silent and still. _

"_My judgment has been misguided." He withdrew his hand from the warmth of hers, nerve diminished by the clearly misunderstood response to his advance, "Retire before night has come."_

"_Wait –" Her hand found his again, "Stay." She implored, "Please stay."_

_He pressed her to his chest instinctively, stroking the long, silver locks of her hair. "Kisara," pale arms draped themselves around his shoulders, bringing her slender frame closer to his, "I want to be with you always."_

His mouth was stale with the taste of 3:00 AM coffee, his limbs heavy and uncooperative. He had three callbacks and two permits to address before seven, a meeting sharply at eight. There was no time for this tonight. He turned his attention to the previously abandoned laptop, scanning the page until he reached the close of an email he'd yet to send his newest client, which read, "and I with you."

He slammed the computer shut disgustedly, digging through the top drawer of his desk for a sticky note with her name scrawled almost illegibly across the top. Crumpling and discarding it in one swift motion, he rose from his seat and quitted the room.

No more fantasies and facades.

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All feedback is welcome.


	5. Timeframes

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.  
Warnings/Notes: Implied Silentshipping. (Seto x Shizuka)

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**Timeframes **

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Long fingers tensed at the lack of anything to occupy them, reaching instinctively for the phone before being reeled back with silent intensity. There were few things Seto Kaiba couldn't handle, despite how much they festered in the shadow of his successes and secrets. Delay, he noted, was one of them.

He respected punctuality. He liked routine. There was no time in his life for guessing games or conflicts of schedule; everything was to happen precisely as he ordered, because in this aspect there was no question of his control and authority.

But there were some things which simply would not adhere to corporate law, and even the thought of them made him sick. He imagined a blob on the imaging screen, the cloying scent of baby powder and the possibility of a pair of olive eyes. It was a problem: nothing more, nothing less.

In the realm of normality he would have someone else address the issue, as this had become common practice in his life as a CEO, but there was no delegation for this. For his part, there was barely even choice.

Pale hands moved to rest below his chin, "This is unacceptable." (They both knew that.) "Take care of it." Time stopped, the obviously staged room growing painfully small, leaving a thin line of breathing room for the young woman on the other side of the desk.

"I can't." She said firmly, the words constricting in her throat.

And he met her gaze angrily, not only because she had challenged him, but because in doing so she had called his bluff.

"Whatever you decide is up to you, but I just…can't." (In truth, neither could he.)

"Just go." The disgust in his voice was more apparent than he had intended, the redhead turned fiercely on her heel and left him with the slamming of his office door. What she called over her shoulder, he was beyond hearing.

In six months she would walk back through the door with a blanket or a binder, and he would face the impossible decision of raising or rejecting a child. He blew out a long, terse breath as the phone pierced through his thoughts.

There were six months to decide.

He picked up the receiver and began to speak.

He could put it off tonight.


End file.
